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Government doing the job of the parents

In the thread about a city curfew for teens, I read a lot of responses stating that they were fine with it because so many parents didn't do their jobs. What else are you comfortable with the government regulating for the same reason? I asked about mandatory sex education because it seems a lot of people state they are against that sort of thing because it's their job as parents to teach that, so I'm seeing a disconnect here. Where's the line? If they can tell you how long your teen can be out, can they tell you what to feed your toddler? You know, because so many parents just do McDonald's instead of looking after their child's nutrition? That sort of thing? What is acceptable?

That was my point in that post...we hand over one parental choice, how long before other choices follow? We are slowly losing parenting rights to the government, and it is a little scary. There are somethings I do support (car seat laws, child labor laws, things that truly protect kids). But this curfew thing scares me.

IMO a curfew set by a city isn't ay different than any other city type ordinance. I also don't believe a city/municipal curfew is the same as your state dictating how you feed your children, cloth them or punish them.

That was my point in that post...we hand over one parental choice, how long before other choices follow? We are slowly losing parenting rights to the government, and it is a little scary. There are somethings I do support (car seat laws, child labor laws, things that truly protect kids). But this curfew thing scares me.

That's total garbage, IMO.

If that were true than people who receive PA would have a menu of foods to select from and not all foods would be covered. If that was true parents wouldn't be allowed to homeschool. If that were true we wouldn't have a choice to whether or not we vax our kids. (I realize the CDC set guidelines but we aren't punished/fined for not vaxxing)

ITA with this. It bothers me that parents are so eager to give up their kids rights in the name of what's good and safe. You know what else is good and safe? Breastfeeding. So maybe there should be a law saying everyone has to breastfeed, right? (I do NOT think so!)

A curfew was put in place because of complaints and studies of violence towards teens after a certain hour. Parents complain about the streets not being safe but were not putting in place ways to protect their child(ren) Like with the steady rise of teen pregnancy and STD cases among teens. (Its actually dropped but not ny much) Obviously somewhere someone was lacking in educating their child or blaming outside forces for their child's behavior.

Public curfew is a direct public concern because of the trouble teens get into when they roam in large groups. However, I do see the slippery slope when it comes to parenting. I feel strongly that government has no place in the home. It is not anyone's job to make parents raise their children in any certain way, provided they are not grossly neglecting or abusing their children.

I do not want to have the government parent my child. I understand why they do curfew but honestly if a child was put to the point and wanted to sue for discrimination they could. Curfew laws are only against certain ages in the ideals that they prevent crime which honestly it seldom does anything. I know the charges have been dropped before if the kid had the means to fight back with a lawsuit.

Public curfew is just one more way of taking our rights away as parents. Before they are done, we will have no rights and children will know this and take advantage of it. They already do which is why so many are out of control and why the governmemt will have to interfere more. It's a catch 22.

I am not ok that the government feels they need to parent our kids regards to sex, drugs, yadda yadda. I do agree the schools should continue to do campaigns and awareness on these areas. It never hurts to expose kids facts and truths behind things like drugs, sex yadda yadda.

I do agree that too people (so far in CM itself) are posing to be lazy demanding the school put out full education systems on everything for teens including free Birth Control... I mean come on, when does your job as being a parent start? Why is it ending? Oh the excuse some wont and dont therefore the SCHOOL should step up. Bull pucky! If indeed parents are not taking care of their teenagers, in my opinion what makes you think they took care of them as infants or children in grade school? Why are these kids living with these parents? What the hell is wrong with these types of people thinking that once a child turns 13 she is no longer a child? Im sorry but the kids are not the problem and apparently we are heading down "Im an Idiot and Ignorant" lane in america when it comes parenting. Its not that hard to stay connected with your kids, to talk to them on various of topics. I encourage it, the more discourage it and leave it to the schools I have a feeling the more we will find in the future these so called kids now will become parents later will be even LESS bonded with their teenagers they have no reason to bond if the school does it all.

As for the curfew I agree with it. Kids sneak out, kids are not always using their best common sense when it comes to riding the night on town. I know our town is more concerned with eliminating less drunk driving and traffic once the bars closed. We have had a decrease in drunk/driving/death related accidents due to the curfews.

I don't want gov to parent my children. But with curfew, they are just saying after midnight they need to be off the street unless you are with your child. If you want your child to stay out late, just be with them.

My son got in trouble many times being past curfew. He had a 10 curfew by me but if he was with his friend he would be out all night at times. When I got a call from the police that my teen was pass city curfew and my curfew, I went and picked him right up. He never stayed at that friends house again.

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